


We'll stumble      through it all

by BeLegendary



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Gen, Lima, Louis Tomlinson - Freeform, M/M, Niall Horan - Freeform, Nouis, Tattoos, Twitter, WWA, WWAT, Where We Are Tour, tweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-30
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 09:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1545716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeLegendary/pseuds/BeLegendary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I had to write this after Niall's tweet about Louis' art.</p><p>Louis walks in without asking and Niall eyes him curiously he when sits down on the foot of the bed, crossing his legs beneath him. It takes Niall a minute to catch up before he speaks from his spot cuddled up in his sheets, where he looks soft, almost vulnerable,<br/>'What are you doing here Lou? It's like 3 am shouldn't you be sleeping?'</p><p>Or the one where Louis can't sleep after the Where we are tour show in Lima so instead he goes to Niall's room</p>
            </blockquote>





	We'll stumble      through it all

It's 3 AM in Lima and Louis is still awake, tossing and turning in the fancy cotton hotel sheets, trying to tune out the sound of the screaming fans that are still outside. All five of them waved at the fans earlier on the balcony, in the hopes that it would satisfy them so they'd leave, which obviously isn't the case. 

It's 3:15 when Louis gives up on trying to sleep and instead decides to make 2 cups of tea. He tip toes down the hotel hallway on his barefeet until he reaches the door he's looking for. There are lights coming out from under the door and the handle easily gives in when he tries to open it. Of course Niall wouldn't think about locking his door even when there are hundreds of fans outside. 

Louis walks in without asking and Niall eyes him curiously he when sits down on the foot of the bed, crossing his legs beneath him. It takes Niall a minute to catch up before he speaks from his spot cuddled up in his sheets, where he looks soft, almost vulnerable,  
'What are you doing here Lou? It's like 3 am shouldn't you be sleeping?'

'I could be asking you the same, besides it's 10 AM London time so I'm all awake. Hard to sleep anyways when those girls keep screaming' he grins. 'I brought you tea Nialler drink up eh' Louis leans over to hand Niall the cup, when he feels something cold touching his shin 'Jesus Niall are you sleeping on a fuckin' bed of ice or something? What've you got there?'

'It's nothing, I'm just icing my knee.'

'Your knee? Shouldn't it not hurt anymore by now? Why didn't you tell us your knee hurts Niall?'

'Fuck Tommo calm down, it's nothing it just... It still hurts. The surgery was a lot bigger than expected so technically I'm not really allowed to do this touring thing yet.'

Louis stares at him for a moment and sees how defeated Niall looks. He sees how much it bothers him to admit a weakness and Louis knows that feeling all too well. Remembers the way he handled things that were too hard to deal with, like his dad leaving his family. He remembers how he used to push that sadness and anger down until it all came bursting out at once. Specifically the night where he screamed at his mum until his voice felt raw and tears were streaming down his face and how his mum collected him off the floor and cuddled him in. He thinks about how much better Niall is at dealing with stuff, confiding in people and talking about it. He ignores the little flip his stomach makes when he realises he is the person that Niall chose to confide it, blames it on lack of sleep and jetlag.He realizes he's been staring for too long when Niall breaks the silence.

'Why are you looking at me all funny?'

'Show me.'

'What are you talking about Lou?'

'Show me your knee Niall please?'

Niall looks at him like he's crazy.

'Why would you wanna see that? All there's to see is a fucked up knee with one hell of an ugly scar.'

'Come on Niall just show me' Niall sighs before eventually giving in to Louis, like he always does. He flips off the covers and scoots his knee closer to where Louis is sitting.

Louis changes his position on the bed and carefully tucks his own legs under Niall's while pulling Niall's knee up onto his lap. He traces the long white and red scar with the tips of his fingers. The healed parts look too white, even for Niall's pale Irish skin. He notices Niall squirm beneath him, so he asks 'Does it hurt? Should I stop?'

Louis could be imagining things, but he swears he hears Niall's breath hitch a little when he answers 'No no not at all, Just...nobody's actually touched the scar y'know. Not exactly showing the ugly thing off.'

'It looks badass though you should show it off.'

Niall scoffs, 'yeah right Lou totally badass, almost as badass as your big bad tatts huh?' Niall jokes.

An idea comes to Louis' mind and he smiles up at Niall before quickly climbing of the bed and searching the desk in the hotel room. He climbs back on the bed when he's found what he was looking for. 

'Louis what are you doing?'

'It's a surprise, you trust me not to do anything crazy right?' Niall gives him an amused look, 'Right, you're right, stupid question. You trust me not to hurt you right?'

'Course I do Tommo.' They look at each other and Louis feels the air grow thick, has to break the tension by doing something stupid because he's never been good at feelings. 

'Right, let's fix this knee up then eh'

Louis carefully moves the pen up and down Niall's knee, scribbling lines on it.

Niall looks down and Louis calls him out on it. 'No peaking yet Horan, what part of surprise don't you understand?'

Louis scribbles some more and then proclaims 'Done! Behold my art Nialler!'

Niall looks down at his knee and can't help but grin. 'You're crazy Lou. What is it though?'

'It's an arrow!' Louis exclaims pretending to be offended 'Look!' Louis hold his arm next to Niall's knee, showing of his latest tattoo 'we finally have matching tattoos now!'

Niall's contagious laugh fills the room and it makes Louis feel warm inside. Makes him realize how little he's heard that sound lately.

'I've missed you lad.'

'Missed you too Lou. Thanks for making my knee better. You always make everything better' the words seem to escape Niall's mouth before he realizes it, and it causes his cheeks to warm up a little.

'It's what I'm here for, innit?' Louis smiles at him.

'Now get under the damn blankets and lie with me while I sleep or get out yeah?'

'What a way to treat your guest Niall, I thought Maura taught you better than that' they both laugh as Louis crawls under the blankets next to Niall. Niall's already half a sleep when he pulls Louis closer to his chest. 'Night Lou.' 

'Night Nialler.'

The next morning Louis wakes up to the sound of the shower running and Niall singing. He opens his phone, and sees the tweet Niall sent about Louis' art half an hour ago. He puts his phone away and smiles, this is gonna be a great tour.

**Author's Note:**

> that's it!  
> Please go easy on me, I normally don't do fanfiction just short drabbles & poetry pieces. This wouldn't leave my head though so yeah that's how I ended up posting this. I know it's pretty bad, but please just tell me what you think anyway, critique is always welcome! (:  
> Also a huge thank SolariaLunar21 for correcting stuff in this! (:


End file.
